Grazie

 

Re-discovering ephemera in my crafty stash is always a joyous moment - even more so when it's something that still inspires me to create. I remember buying several set of resin flowers on Etsy because I fell in love with resin flowers that came in a card kit years ago. I bought several options and colors, but (surprisingly!) didn't go overboard.

I'd forgotten about these resin flowers for a while, as they add significant bulk and most of my cards were made for easy mailing. But they are absolutely lovely and make a card look really special. So, I've pulled a few to use on a card or two. I think they will be an interesting element to use on a few hand-given cards.

Thank you Raccoon

Some patterned papers intimidate me a little, but I'm always glad when I can make them work. Especially when I can pair them with a cute woodland creature...

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Rose of Thanks

I'm definitely pushing outside my comfort zone again, this time with a chic floral card. I used a layering stamp set from Altenew that intimidates me a little, but I do like the colors I chose for the layers. I think it turned out pretty and I like the color palette on this card.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

A Collage of Thanks

Reorganizing my crafty stash a little again and I came across a few things that I bought for bullet journaling. I never did really get into bullet journaling and I'm not sure I'll fully have the time for it nowadays, but I don't like the idea of wasting supplies. So, I thought I'd pull them out and use on a card.

I added some ink blending and texture paste with a stencil to the mix.

It's pretty unusual - not the kind of style that I normally go for, but experimenting was fun. I may experiment with this style again sometime and bring even more mixed media style to a project or two.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Butterfly Thanks

Altenew - Lace Up

Today, my card is an ephemera-based card, using some bits and pieces from my stash. I found this great bright floral, as well as a lovely butterfly ephemera die-cut that I really wanted to put together on a card. I paired them with a simple gray stripe and an elegant sentiment from Altenew's Lace Up.

Happy Monday and thanks for taking a look!
~Elle~

NT- Valentine Nut

Neat & Tangled - Favorite Nut

Today's card features Neat & Tangled's My Favorite Nut stamp set, and it's a fun Valentine-themed card. I played with the idea of making a Valentine's series, as I'd like to send some cards in for Cards From The Heart Card Drive this year, but I don't know how many extra challenges I can handle beyond the "card every day" goal I've set for myself. If you do have some spare time, though, I recommend taking part in the card drive. The cards need to be received by January 31st, so there's still a couple of weeks to participate.

Since the card drive has some requirements, I kept my card very CAS. I colored the image with Copics and added some texture with colored pencils. I added a simple panel and a striped background, along with a little paper pink heart.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Vibrant Flower

 Today's card features a technique I've been meaning to try out for a while - coloring on Kraft cardstock, using an embossed white outline. I really like the way embossed white looks against kraft, and I thought it would look great with the addition of some vibrant color.

For this technique, I needed to use a stamp that has both intricate detail and lots of room where I could lay down color. So, I chose Altenew's Persian Motifs stamp set. I grabbed a couple of stamps from the set and stamped them in Versamark ink. I then embossed them in white. Now, I could have stopped right there and had a lovely and subtle design, but I really wanted to add a lot of rich color. And I decided to do so with my Prismacolor pencils.

The reason I chose Prismacolors in particular is because they're a very soft, very pigmented pencil. This would ensure that the colors would stand out against the Kraft cardstock - something you don't get wit pencils that have a harder lead. It's very similar to pigment ink vs dye ink when stamping on kraft paper. Dye ink soaks into the paper and doesn't give you the same vibrant look you get with pigment ink. Likewise, hard lead doesn't put much pigment down and the result is a very subtle or faded look. So, if you want to try this technique and have a very vibrant color, go with a soft-core pigmented color pencil.

You'll want to test your color on a piece of cardstock first. Since kraft cardstock fives you a darker background, your color choices will need to be adjusted. Take the red, for example. It is a perfect rich red on the card, but the color I actually used looks a bit more light and orange on white paper. 

Soft pencils like Prismacolors tend to layer very well. I only used 7 colors on this card -- yellow, red, green, orange, blue, white and dark brown. I was able to layer the colors on top of each other to create depth and shading, and I didn't have to do any extra blending with solutions - just working lighter to darker and back again to blend the colors in.. So, don't feel like you need to own a million colors. Just the basics can give you a really great result.

After my piece was colored in, I built the rest of the card around it. I used a neutral gray for the base, as it makes the panel seem even warmer in tone, and I added some patterned paper that uses the same tones as the flower.